Thursday This n That

Hang on a sec... I need more coffee... Okay, I'm back.

My Amazon order was supposed to be delivered yesterday. It was on an Amazon truck, headed this way.  We waited.  And waited.  And when it got dark, we turned the porchlight on.  At 9, we finally gave up, turned the light off and went to bed.  This morning, Amazon says it's been delayed due to weather.  No biggie.  We did have one hell of a sploosher.  Still, it would've been nice if they'd mentioned the possible delay yesterday afternoon.  Sort of a 'hey, it looks like there's a possibility of our vehicle getting either blown off the road or submerged in the deluge, so we're probably not gonna make it' thing.  Anyway, now they're predicting delivery on the 7th.  Two days?  The weather wasn't THAT bad.  No swirly-whirlies or anything.  :shrug:  Yeah, there's nothing important in my order.  Carving design stuff mostly.  It's the idea that irritates me.

I wonder what all this rain is doing to my newly-planted carrot seeds.  Eh, time will tell.

The coffee's not helping yet.  I need a smoke.  Hang on.  Be right back...  Okay.  Thanks.

Yesterday, the neighbor kid was walking the road by himself.  He's like 7, I think.  He's a good kid and this is a fairly safe neighborhood, but we were concerned.  I wasn't allowed to leave the yard by myself until I was 10.  Of course, we did have those boys that got murdered about 10 minutes east of town when I was little.  Maybe I worry too much.  It's the grandmother genes I will never use poking their heads out, most likely.

Of course, after that, the episodes of the crime shows we wanted to watch seemed to be all about kids - one was cops tracking a pedophile ring, another one had a guy who'd murdered a kid.  We settled on an episode of Harry Wild that only featured teens peripherally and none of them got hurt.  Then we watched a true-disaster show.  

I had planned on making my first cuts into woods yesterday, but it was so damn gloomy out that the light sucked out on the sunporch where I wanted to carve.  Oh, well.  The wood's not going anywhere.

Okay, I think that's it for me.  Anything you want to add?

Thursday This n That

Bears keep attacking people in NW Arkansas.  Not sure what's up with that.  The attacks aren't super close to here and we haven't had any bear sightings inside of five miles from here, but yeah, I don't need freakin' bear attacks on my 2025 bingo card.  K?

Sawyer's new game is to bite my feet while I'm sitting here at my desk.  It's unpleasant.

I saw a coyote the other morning.  I was almost home from a walk and it trotted across the road about 10-12 feet in front of me.  

The last time I was in Walmart, I saw a woman wearing a Soo Locks t-shirt.  It just so happened that I was wearing my Michigan Born and Bred t-shirt that day, so I pointed to her shirt and then to mine, and we both laughed.  Stuff like that has happened more often that I would've imagined down here.  Like the day I was wearing my U of M sweatshirt and crossed paths with a dude wearing his OSU (the bad one) sweatshirt.  He seemed annoyed that he was all the way into Arkansas and ran into a fan of his team's rival.  :shrug:  Hell, when we first moved here a chick across the street and down the way was from Kalamazoo. We're everywhere, man.

I made deconstructed stuffed peppers a couple days ago.  This time, I used red bell peppers instead of green.  It was pretty tasty, but I missed the color contrast. They do say you eat first with your eyes.  :shrug:  

Today, I have to do an Amazon order.  Stupid Walmart stopped carrying the ink for the printer they sold me not that long ago.  Bastards.  Freakin' ink is probably almost as much as I paid for the damn printer in the first place.  :steams:

On a happier note, Amazon is really awesome about taking my returns.  I bought some clothes for my trip to Michigan, but I didn't wear any of them.  (I was expecting MI to be cooler than it was.  Derp.)  I'd left the tags on for just this result, and returned them as soon as I could after I got home.  Huzzah, my refund is in my account.  Yay.

Okay, I should probably get on with my life and let you get on with yours.  Have a great day!

A Morning Rant

When I got close to finishing the first draft of my first novel, I began doing research on everything I would need to do to get it published.  I bought the big book of agents.  I made lists and notes and spreadsheets.  I studied how to write query letters.  I scoured the web for information.  I joined a couple of writers' groups online.  

I did the same thing when I decided to stop looking for an agent.  I went through the process of researching publishers who might accept unagented manuscripts and how to contact them.  When that didn't work, I went through the process of researching everything on how to self-publish... before I made a single step down the path.  

This morning, I saw a gal bitching because she self-published through Amazon in May and made some sales, but it's already July and she hadn't seen any money yet.  A boatload of people told her what is already obvious to anyone who's done like 2 seconds of research - Amazon pays at 60 days from the end of the month that your sales occurred in.  So, May sales get paid at the END of July. 

Even then, she questioned the truth of the answers those people gave her.  She was sure Amazon was out to screw her.  :eyeroll:  And some dude in comments egged her on because Amazon supposedly closed his account within 30 days of him publishing his book, but they didn't take it down and they're collecting all his monies.  Obviously, Amazon is ebil.  

Okay, so Amazon isn't perfect.  Generally, though, if you do your research and you follow the rules, it's easy to navigate the river.  I'm guessing dude didn't follow the rules.  

I often see people complaining about things that are so easy to figure out with a little effort.  But effort is a four-letter word for some people, even when it's little and not really effort.  Here... I'll help... Go to your freakin' search engine, type in what you're looking for, scroll through the answers it spits out.  Voila.  And it helps to not just read the first answer.  Read several until you find the right answer and understand it thoroughly.  

Okay, so that is effort for some people, I guess.  Researching shit ought to be fun because like, you know, we're WRITERS.  :shrug:  But no, they'd rather bitch in a Facebook group.  It probably took more time for the bitching than they would've expended on the research, but hey...

Anyway, long story short... I blocked the chick.  And the dude.  I don't need that kind of negativity and willful ignorance in my life.  The moral of the story?  Don't run around social media screaming at people to chew your food for you and then whine when you choke.

Sunday Update - Week 12

Another Sunday morning and here I am...

Work was work, so let's get that out of the way.  My customers love me.  I got some nice kudos. I've made friends with the UPS dude.  (Never underestimate the power of making friends with the guys who deliver the stuff you need.)  I got paid again.  It's all good, baby.  Let's see if anything interesting happened beyond that...

I finally finished the non-fiction I was reading.  Yay.  I'm now into a Phyllis Whitney.  

Yesterday, I ran errands.  No Wallyworld trip this time because I had to head north for other stuff, so I just hit the grocery store up there.  And I was super-excited because a north trip means stopping by one of my favorite thrift stores.  Unfortunately, the dang place was closed for remodeling.  Son of a motherless monkey.  Once that was thrown out the door, I at least got to get these awesome little fruit pies Walmart doesn't carry.  And pistachio ice cream.  Yum.  If I can't get books, I can be happy about food.  Yeah, I lead a simple life.

Amazon still hasn't refunded my money from that instant breakfast tragedy.  I even chatted with a live rep who promised they'd get it to me.  Bastards.  Amazon is pissing me off.

Hubs and I took a walk yesterday.  I'm still only at like 3 miles for the year, though.  I really need to get off my dead ass and get some exercise.  Weight: 160-ish.  And I'm back to eating pretty much normal again.

We have discarded the idea of getting a dog.  It's the rational decision.  Dogs are a lot of work and with me gone all day, all that work would fall on Hubs, which isn't fair.  Now, I'm working on convincing Hubs that getting a kitty now would be awesome.  Cats are easy.  And then he'd have someone to keep him company while I'm at the office.

I saw a bald eagle on the way home from errands yesterday.  She was sitting in a tree near the road leading back in to home.  I say she because it was quite light, but I don't know for certain that's a gender-based thing.  :shrug:  Anyway, she was an adult - white head, doncha know - and she looked healthy.  She's probably the last eagle I'll see until late Fall.

 Other than that, not much going on around here.  How was your week?

Sunday Update - Week 11

 At least I think it's Week 11... it all blurs together after a while.  

Nothing much happened this week.  I worked.  I did errands.  Last weekend's urge to write must've been a fluke.  It didn't happen again.  I'm not stressin'.  I'm grateful for the few I got out.    Yeah, yeah... a real writer doesn't wait for the words to come.  BICHOK* and all that.  

Speaking of writerly work, I let D2D upload my books to Smashwords and something called Palace Marketplace.  We'll see if anyone bites.  Since I had new venues, I got into my spreadsheet and started to add the links to those markets on my Links page.  That's when I discovered something intriguing.  Hoopla has blocked several of my books.  No notice. No reasons. It just says 'blocked' at the bottom of the list of markets and has Hoopla's logo under there. So, if you're on Hoopla and looking for certain books of mine, you're SOL**.  The books not on there are: Blink of an I, the entire SCIU series - Dying Embers, Fertile Ground, and Early Grave, and finally Wish Hits the Fan.  The last one confuses me greatly because it's blocked but none of the other genie books are blocked.  And none of the Model Curse books, which are way more R-rated in terms of swearing.  I haven't contacted D2D or anything.  I'm not sure I really care.  But if Hoopla is going to be that way, I may just pull the rest of my books off of it.  I mean, a venue that distributes to libraries blocking books of any sort seems a little suspect.  :shrug:

In other news, the package I was waiting for from Amazon got destroyed in transit.  And now I'm waiting for 'Zon to give me a refund, which they say they will do when the package gets back to them. Derp.  It was only a new bra and a 22-pack of instant breakfasts, but $27 is $27 and it's mine.  And I don't want to reorder until I have my money back.  I do have to reorder... I can't find chocolate instant breakfasts locally.  WTF?  I bought vanilla, but it's not the same.  As for the bra, I can limp along for a while longer with the ones I have.  Unfortunately, losing weight has necessitated purchasing such things.  

I haven't lost any more weight, btw.  I'm still at 160.2, but things are still getting looser.  So, my two favorite bras, which were tight a year ago and then fit perfectly, are now not fitting quite right and soon will not do the job they were hired for.  This is also happening to my underwear and my pants.  I can get pants at the thrift store, but underthings have to be new.  HAVE TO BE NEW.  (Even if the local thrift store does sell used brassieres.  They may even sell used panties, but I'm afraid to look.  Ew.) 

I haven't done any baking.  Hubs is teaching himself to do my baking while I work.  He made his own granola bars this week.  Go Hubs.  He threatened to make his own zucchini bread.  I may let him.  Then again, I may get a wild hair and make them today.  We'll see. 

Don't ask about reading.  

And I think that's it for the updates this week.  If you have a burning desire to find out about anything else going on with me, ask.  How was your week?

* For the uninitiated Butt In Chair, Hands On Keyboard.
** Shit outta luck

Thursday This n That

Hey, it's still Thursday.  

I actually thought tomorrow was Thursday and I was stopping to set up my post for tomorrow all proud of myself... until I realized that it was already Thursday.  Derp.

Tonight, I was really good and made fish for dinner with a side salad.  About 30 minutes after I ate, I made myself a chicken salad sandwich (on a hot dog bun because that's how I roll, baby) because no way was I going to make it through the night on tilapia and salad.  I am satiated now.  Yay.  On the upside, I don't feel like eating a bowl of ice cream tonight.

I think the eagles have gone, but the exchange is songbirds are arriving and the air is filled with happy.

Another think... I think wrens are building a nest in a work van that hardly anyone ever uses anymore.  I hope it gets driven before the birds lay any eggs.

My neighbor used to leave his mailbox open so he'd know when the mail got delivered.  Wrens decided it would be a perfect place to build a nest and we watched them fly back and forth all day delivering weeds and sticks.  The next day, the neighbor had to clean all that stuff out, which was pretty funny.  Even funnier was that the wrens starting rebuilding almost as soon as his back was turned.  Day after day, they would work on the nest and later, he would take all the material out.  The wrens finally got the hint and left.  The neighbor never did learn to close his mailbox.  One day, a woman moved in with him and she started closing the mailbox. 

I love Amazon.  You can get all sorts of disparate items in one place.  Tonight, I ordered a new bra and a 22-pack of Carnation Instant Breakfast.  I wonder what the person putting that package together is going to think.  ROFL

Carnation Instant Breakfast - chocolate flavored - is perfect in a cup of coffee.  Screw milk.  Dump the packet into the bottom of a large coffee mug and fill it with java.  If you've been here long enough, you may remember it was my beverage of choice years back.  I called it 'Breakfast of Champions'.  I'm going back to drinking it because I don't think I'm getting enough nutrition and by the time lunch rolls around I'm so hungry I could eat my shoes.

By the way, the low-salt diet thing?  Screw that.  I thought I was putting a lot of salt on my food until I actually measured a 1/4 teaspoon of the stuff and dumped it into the palm of my hand.  And thus, I learned that's about how much I put into a pot of water for noodles.  The minuscule amount I shake onto a burger is piddlin'.  And I don't even use straight salt for that.  I use Lowery's which has less sodium than salt anyway.  Piffle.  

I'm hovering around 160 now.  Sometimes a little over, sometimes a little under.  And I'm okay with that.  It's 22 pounds gone since last June.  Hell, it's enough of a weight loss that I needed another new bra, so win-win.

Okay, I think that's enough out of me for one sitting.  What's on your radar today?

Thursday This n That

I didn't get out of bed until 7. Deal with it.

Well, that was another fun night.  2.6 inches of rain.  Lightning and thunder abounded.  I got up around 2 a.m. and watched the radar until I was sure nothing swirly was headed this way.  The worst of it dissipated before it got here, leaving us with just loads of water.  The wet weather stream at the back of the property is a roaring creek right now.  And there are flood warnings all over the place.  

On a side note, I love living on a hill.  In times like these having a house right on the lake is a liability I'm glad I don't have to deal with.  

For some reason, I was a whole week ahead yesterday. Yep, thought it was the 2nd Wednesday. Derp.

Tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of my Dad's passing. I think to think he's somewhere catching fishing with his dad. (His dad died when he was ten, so he never really got the chance to go fishing with him. Dad always seemed to regret that.)

I so did not want to write last night, but I kicked my own ass and got over 1700 words out.

Did anyone else get the email that Amazon will no longer be supporting MOBI files in its 'Send to Kindle'? Weird. Thankfully, the only files I send to my Kindle are Word documents. But how does that work for authors who send MOBI files to their readers? :shrug:

Okay, today is a short this-n-that, but I'm running late, so I'd better get my buns moving. See ya in the funny papers.

Thursday This n That

 A while back Amazon decided that when they send you a confirmation email after you order a book, it would make the subject some kind of code - which matches neither the ISBN or the ASIN - instead of the book title.  And to see the actual title, you have to click a link in the email.  And then it asks you for your password.  Like this is some kind of state secret.  Blerg.  Are there people out there for whom having the title in the email subject is a real problem?  Are they all like 'OMG, I couldn't bear it if someone saw I'd ordered The Duchess and the Rapacious Rake.'?  Not having the title in the subject, as you might've guessed, is exceptionally irritating to me, since I use those emails to track where I'm at reading the books I've ordered.  Just now, I implemented a new step that fixes it.  I forward the email back to myself and change the subject to the damn book title.  It's an extra step, but it stops messing with my system.  Last year, I ordered 113 books from Amazon.  Try juggling those.  (And yes, I have a spreadsheet with the titles, but that's not the point.)

Why can't people just leave things alone?  Newer isn't always better.  And change isn't always necessary.  Sheesh.

Guess what?  2022 is the year DOOM happens.  (It's a videogame and a movie.  Love the movie, never played the game.)  Since we haven't discovered the gateway thingie yet, I think we're safe from that.  SOYLENT GREEN is also set in 2022.  Not sure we're in a place where we'll be turning the elderly into food, but what do I know?  For the record, I haven't seen this movie, but it's enough of a cultural icon, I pretty much know what's going on.

I heard today that our feckless leader doesn't even know what year it is.  I am unsurprised.  Remember when they hammered Reagan for making small mistakes like that?  Pepperidge Farms remembers.  But Creepy Joe gets a pass.  Feh.

I also read a newstory from the 3rd about New Hampshire and Vermont law enforcement getting called to a report of a dog running loose on a bridge.  They get there and the German Shepherd leads them to where a truck had gone through the guardrail and rolled down an embankment, throwing both occupants out into the snow.  They were seriously injured and hypothermic, but alive.  One of them was the dog's owner.  The dog was unharmed.  Dog saves man.  Again.  Yay.

My new coffee maker has a 'strong' setting.  Hallelujah.  I'm playing with the idea of being able to use less coffee grounds by making it on 'strong'.  We'll see.

I'm running one day off this week.  Yesterday, I thought it was Thursday.  I thought Tuesday was Wednesday.  You get the gist.  Thankfully, I've stopped myself before doing anything stupid.  Part of this is probably my check arriving a day late.  Throws everything off.  Derp.

And that's it for me.  Anything on your this-n-that radar today?

Sunday Update - OMG, What Week IS it?

 I have lost track of the weeks again.  Oh, I could go look it up.  I could even just count backward from the end of the year and junk.  Right now?  Nope.  I need a coffee IV.

What did I do last week?  Oh yeah...

I'm still not writing new words, but I did make some small progress with the edit notes.  I've gotten 8 pages of notes input now and that's brought me to pg49 in the manuscript.  Go me.  If you knew the mental hurdles and roadblocks I'm trying to jump, you'd see this is a bigger thing than it looks like.  I need to just put my head down and soldier through.  First I need to be in a place where I can put my head down and soldier through, though.  

I thought about marketing.  Really, I did.  And I learned that Amazon does not let you do any Kindle Countdown Deals or freebies 30 days before a book drops out of Kindle Select and the book has to be in Kindle Select for 2 weeks after the KCD or free offer.  Or some such nonsense.  Except this morning, when I went to check my facts, they're now saying I could possibly put Unequal into one or the other and it's drop date is 11/29, so what do I know?  A friend told me she clicked the box to take a book out and when she went back, they'd put it back in.  Unequal is still showing as deselected, so I'm not sure what's going on there.  Anyway, I'm not doing it.  If you want one of my books, pay full price.  None of them are really that expensive - between $2.99 and $4.99.  You can get the four-book Once Upon a Djinn series for just under $16.  Which is less than one hardcover of most other books these days.  :shrug:

In reading news, well, I didn't finish any books before my Saturday Reading Wrap-up, but I did some other stuff that made a reading wrap-up worth perusing.  

On the baking front, I did a batch of granola bars and yesterday, I made scalloped potatoes with ham.  I also put cheese and bacon bits in it.  Hubs was pleased.  I was content.  I think it needed more of something tasty, but I'm rarely 100% pleased with my own cooking.

We spent some time in the woods this week, but not as much as I wanted.  It was too warm for really getting into the woods until yesterday.  And we sawed through all the wood we'd already gleaned, so we had to wait.  Yesterday, we spent a good hour dragging timber up the hill and then another hour sawing.  We only really got through a 3" diameter piece, part of another, and most of an 8-9" piece of oak.  That last sucker was a bear.  It needs one more cut and it'll be done, but we were tired and left it to today.  The other piece was a wood we'd never cut through before, so we set it aside to do some more research.  It's pretty dark pink inside, but it is definitely not cedar.  I'm guessing black cherry.  We'll see.  It's definitely not firewood.  We may find a way to make flooring with it. We'll see.  Weight: 180.4 - mine, not the wood. (Not sure where the pound and half went, but yay for it going.)

Did the Wallyworld thing.  I'm down to only going once a month, so it's a big deal now.  Anyway, I picked up the turkey for Thanksgiving.  I got a Honeysuckle White for 87c a pound.  Yay.  Unfortunately, the smallest one they had was over 14lbs.  We'll be eating turkey for a while after TGD.

Got an unexpected wrinkle this week which, oddly enough, set me to working on edit notes - just to give my brain something else to think about for a while.  It helped while I was doing it.  Too bad I can't work on edit notes while I'm trying to sleep because my brain went after the wrinkle with a vengeance that night.  Still not a thing I can do about it, but the ol' brain doesn't bother with that.  It just climbs on the hamster wheel and runs.  It would've also helped if I could've gone into the woods, but it was close to dark when it occurred and then the next morning it rained and by afternoon it was windy.  Blerg.

I also really need to go fishing, but the weather's been a turd for that.  If it's not raining and cold, it's windy.  Nerts.

Okay, well, that's enough out of me for today.  I'm sure there's something I'm forgetting.  If you want an update on something that's not here, ask.  I'll most likely answer you.  

How was your week?

Thursday This n That

 I woke up this morning to a dead coffee maker.  Poor Hubs was making coffee by boiling water in the teakettle and then pouring it over the grounds in the machine.  He had about a half a pot ready for me when I woke up.  Then I went into the storage closet and pulled out the backup machine.  Yes, I have a backup coffee maker.  It's an older one that wasn't quite dead when I bought the new one, so I tucked it away for emergency usage.  So, we have coffee and the world is still safe.  You're welcome.

I will be going out and picking up a new coffee maker today.  Because the backup could die without warning and no one wants that.  I drink coffee and smoke cigarettes for your protection.  Again, you're welcome.

I also have instant.  For larger emergencies.

So, I finally heard back from Amazon about my missing page reads.  They're still not paying me for those, but Amazon assured me my account is in good standing.  Umm... yeah.  So, because they (or their bots) decided someone was using KU to... what, fake read books?... I'm screwed.  I'll talk more about that tomorrow.

It's totally splooshy here.  Big band of rain stretching from the Gulf to Canada and it's sort of stalled, so it's wet wet wet here.  I'll need to find something else to do rather than throw logs for a while I guess.

I did do some edit notes yesterday.  A half page worth.  Which sounds pathetic until you realize on that half page were a couple of things that needed to be changed in the whole book.  Find and replace is a wonder, but each instance had to be carefully reviewed and reworded to make it work.  One of them was the hair color of an important secondary character.  And there was another character with the same hair color, so I had to make sure I was changing the right person's hair.  Blerg.  The other was how the mages address each other.  Yeah, still sounds easy when I type it out, but it wasn't.  What it was was tiring and tedious.

My luck has truly sucked lately.  My poker account went from 330mil to 120mil.  And I'm not doing anything different.  Just getting a heapin' helpin' of bad luck.  Thankfully, it seems to only be in the poker.  Not that my luck is awesome elsewhere, but at least it's not bad.  :knock on wood:

I had a dream the other night that made me totally not want a dog.  Something about two little yappy dogs and my entire house covered in urine and feces.  :shudder:  But I'm over it.  I want a dog again.  I like the looks of this one.  Or this one.  Or this one.  Or this cat.  

And that's about enough out of me this morning.  Have a great day.

Thursday This n That

 In case you missed it, I have a new book (Cinder Ugly) up for pre-order right now and a sale going on (Once Upon a Djinn).  

Amazon, in its infinite wisdom, isn't showing pre-orders.  It's been a long time since I did a pre-order, but I'm pretty sure they used to show how many pre-orders I had.  I should have at least one (cuz I pre-ordered it).  

Amazon has also not grouped my A Model Curse books into a series yet.  I have a request in to them.  We'll see if it gets done before CU goes live.  (They used to do this automatically.  At least, they've done it for my other series.  :shrug:)

I'm not sure if it's the 'rona or Halloween or the approaching election, but twice this week I've had people screw up the attachment thing on emails I need.  Once, there was no attachment.  The other time, the attachment was wrong.  From totally different people.  Blerg.

Sometimes I have to remind myself 'you can't know what you don't know' and not feel stupid about things people point out that I didn't know.  (I don't think they meant to make me feel stupid.)  I mean, maybe I should've known.  But I didn't know such a thing even existed, so how could I have known that I didn't know?  Ya know?

I've been feeling kinda low these past couple days.  No big deal.  I only mention it because I woke up this morning with 'High Hopes' stuck in my head.  A positive song out of nowhere.  Part of me is all like 'yay'.  Part of me wants to punch myself in the brain.  It's like facing a cheerful person before you've had enough coffee to deal with all that cheer.

It's raining raining raining here.  The lake's gone up a foot in the past day or so.  Not a problem since the lake was a 'normal level' which means it can go up another 15 feet without causing a major problem.  Still, all this rain is making my yard look like a waterfall and it's really mushy out there.  It's also harshing my ability to take walks.  

I saw the cutest kitten posted on one of the rescue sites I follow and I wanted it in the worst way.  It was killer cute.  Death by cuteness cute.  This is not the time to be taking on a new pet - especially a kitten or a puppy.  I don't have the time or the energy or the patience for a baby animal right now.  And then there's Kira.  The old lady doesn't need that kind of irritation.  She's gotta be... what... 86 or so in cat years?   She takes up a lot of time and energy and patience all on her own.  Throw a new pet into that?  Nope.

And that's enough out of me.  What's up with you?

Thursday This n That

As soon as I sat down to write this all the ideas I had for this post scurried back into the shadows of my mind.  That's pretty much how writing fiction feels right now.

I'm out of ice cream again.  Hubs was all like 'didn't you just buy ice cream?' and I was all like 'on the 18th'.  Two people - Owl and I - eating ice cream every day tends to make the ice cream disappear quicker.  Blerg.

Amazon finally shipped my order.  There are only two things in it - a bottle of glucosamine pills and a printer cartridge.  Luckily, we aren't out of ink and I've been rationing my pills.  I forgot to buy ink when I was at Wallyworld and they were out of the glucosamine.  Why they were out of those escapes me.  It's not like it combats the 'rona.  Sheesh.

I woke up this morning to a world gone madder. 

I really need to go fishing.  Unfortunately, the lake levels are so high, there's really only one place I can fish right now - the driveway to the parking lot of my normal fishing spot.  The parking lot is now full. 

That's it when the lake is at 930 ft above sea level.  In case you missed it, here's what it looked like on the 21st when it was 925ft.

They're supposed to have started dumping water out of the dams, but we're also supposed to get more sky water, so I don't expect to see much of a change any time soon.

I could probably still fish.  The problem comes when other people are trying to put their boats in there and those that have put in will have taken all the remaining parking spots along the road.  =o(

I could also maybe fish here...

I've fished that road before, there's just no place to park.  Only one person lives along the non-floody part on the east side, and I know her, so I'm sure she wouldn't mind me parking in the road, but parking in the road makes me nervous.

We'll see.

Anyway, that's all I can think to talk about today.  Got anything on your this-n-that today?

Thursday This n That + Chaos Diary Stuff

For some reason, I decided to test the done-ness of the French bread pizzas last night with my bare hands.  Which would've been fine if I hadn't accidentally brushed my finger against the pan, too.  Only one spot on one knuckle got burned and blistered a bit, but man, that one spot... Blerg.  I burn myself at least a couple times a year, so I should be used to it.  Does one ever get used to burns? 

I had some banking to do again yesterday.  As I was standing around chatting with my friends - 6 ft away from them (virtue signal lit) - one of them mentioned a little blue bird she'd been seeing.  My BFF and I said at almost the same time 'indigo bunting'.  See?  This is why she's my BFF.  We get each other.  Man, I missed her during the MO lockdown.

Making progress on Cinder Ugly.  Slow progress, but progress nonetheless.  I expect to reach 100 pages today.  Not hard since I finished yesterday on pg 99. 

I never dreamed I'd reach the age of 50 only to find myself monitoring the potty habits of a geriatric cat.  She's pooping along like a champion, btw.  Yay. 

Okay, I'm not fifty.  Yet.  Next week, I'll be fifty.  Umm, yah.

It was time to order more catfood again, so I trotted over to Amazon.  Yay all the types I wanted were in stock.  I also need new socks, so I thought I'd tack them onto the order.  Socks?  They're on back order.  Socks.  On back order.  Who would've thunk it?  For the record, I am rough on socks.  My feet chew through the heels at an alarming rate.  They didn't used to.  Older feet?  Cheaper socks?  My funny gait getting funnier?  :shrug:  I'll pick some up at the Dollar General next time I'm there.

Also for the record, I hate having to think that far ahead on buying catfood.  Just over two weeks worth left?  Time to order more, in case the shipment gets held up.  Blerg.

I have heard Amazon's not being as snappy with their shipments and deliveries as they were.  Stupid chaos.

What's on your this n that list today?  Got any chaos things to report? 

The Chaos Diaries - 4/14/20

These days, I have Benjamin Franklin running on a loop in my head - 'Those who would give up liberty for a little security deserve neither.'  (Probably not an exact quote, but you get the gist.)  Especially as I watch my old home state run right down the crapper.

Personally, right here, we haven't given up any liberty except what we choose to set aside - like running to the store once a week - and our security is fine.  Other people in MO, with small businesses and jobs and school-aged kids are harder hit.  Some other states?  They're screwed royally.  Unfortunately, I fear the country as a whole may be screwed as well.  We'll see.

I said early on I was more worried about what this virus would do to the economy than what it would do to me.  I haven't changed my mind.  Virus worry is pretty low while economy worry rises daily.

One thing the chaos is doing is showing the true colors of some politicians - in glaring detail so it should be hard to miss it or ignore it.  I mean, hydroxychloroquine is showing awesome results, so banning it for no other reason than that the President said it was a good thing?  People are dying and they're playing politics?  

By the way, just now, I went to Google to learn how to spell hydroxychloroquine and the top three news stories - Washington Post, CNN, and MSNBC - were all negative about the drug.  Hmm.  Funny how other non-MSM news outlets are posting good stories about it saving people's lives.  Funnier how those positive stories are not making the top three at Google.  Just something to think about.

In other news, I scrubbed my shower yesterday.  With two people using it now, it needs more attention than it used to.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.  Today, I'll tackle the rest of the bathroom.  Scrubbing the shower takes a lot out of me.  It's a full surround, so the only way to really get it clean is to wipe it all down with Soft Scrub and then strip down nekkid, turn on the shower, and climb in.  I get the whole thing scrubbed and rinsed, and then I wash myself.  The overhead part really gets those arm muscles working, lemme tell ya.  And now it's sparkly clean.  Yay.

I'm still trying to remember: Nothing matters but what matters.  It is what it is.  Conflict serves no purpose.  Then Hubs tried to put a fork in the dishwasher without rinsing it and I barked at him.  Well, not really a bark.  More like an emphatic nawp.  In my defense, I was doing dishes at the time and he could've just handed it to me.  In his defense, I'm a loon and there was nothing wrong with him trying to be helpful by just dropping the freaking fork in the silverware basket.  I apologized.

Being zen is hard when you're a closet control freak.  I did let Owl unload the dishwasher without standing over her shoulder to make sure she put everything away right.  And I've been letting her cook stuff without hovering.  And I haven't said anything about the amount of water she leaves on the bathroom floor after she showers.  Serenity now.  Ohhhhmmmm.

Not sure what today will bring.  I'm waiting on my paycheck so I can go to the bank and hit the Dollar General for a couple things I forget to buy at Wallyworld.  It's a day late so far.  I expect the USPS is running slow like everything else. 

Speaking of slow, I got an email from Amazon that one of the boxes of catfood I'd ordered shipped yesterday.  We'll see when it gets here.  It'll be another 10 days worth of food.  Which should put us safely into next month before I have to go to Wallyworld again.  By then, hopefully, the peak of this crap will be over and we'll be on the downslope.  :fingers crossed:

Stay safe and stay healthy out there, my friends.  :hugs:

Thursday This n That

I had a really great idea for the beginning of this post, but by the time I got over here, it was gone.  This is the story of my life.  LOL

Saturday, I ordered a new Foreman Grill and a pastry cutter from Amazon.  My Foreman is getting too old to clean well enough to feel safe about cooking on it and I don't own a pastry cutter (silly, I know, considering how much baking I do).  Anyway, Amazon tracking said the package would be delivered Thursday or Friday of this week.  When I checked tracking on Wednesday, It said it would be delivered that day, but it wasn't showing 'out for delivery'.  It was showing that it's here in the area - in Hollister, so about 75 minutes from here* - so I was thinking Thursday.  Then Hubs reminded me it has to go through our local post office.  That adds a day usually.  So Friday.  48+ hours to get a package about 40 miles.  Woohoo.  (Update: My mistake... it actually arrived yesterday afternoon, but it came UPS, which explains why it was here on time.)

*Google maps says 52 minutes but I've never made that drive in less than an hour and a quarter.  And people wonder why I don't visit Branson more often.  (Well, distance plus it's all peopley there.)

Speaking of that, people are amazed about a lot of places around here I've never been to.  Harrison, Rogers, Bentonville, Joplin...  I've never even been in Springfield proper.  Only to the airport, which is on the west side of the city, so I never have to actually cross into the real city to get to it.  Cities... blerg.  They're so peopley.  I can't imagine the lure of being in a space with all those people.  And don't get me started on traffic.  Here there's a traffic glut if 5 cars are at the four way stop at the same time or if I have 3 cars behind me when I'm on the highway.  (In cases of people behind me, I often pull off somewhere and let them pass just to get away from them.)

For the past 7 years, I've talked about going down to Beebe, AR to visit the graves of my great-great-great? grandparents (Mom's Dad's Dad's Mother's parents).  I've also talked about visiting her great grandfather's (her Dad's Dad's Dad) grave over in Coffeyville, KS.  They're each only about 125 miles from here, but I can't seem to muster the will for traveling anymore.  And poor grandpa Frank is laying over in KS all by himself after a horrible accident where he was smushed between two trains.  (The grisly part of genealogy is learning the gruesome ways our ancestors died.)  His wife took the kids, remarried and moved down to OK where I lost track of her, but I know none of them are buried near Frank.  =o(

My new Foreman Grill is the kind with removable cook plates for easier cleaning.  They can be put in the dishwasher, but I'll wash them by hand so they last longer.  All I know is when I did the pre-use wash, it was easy peasy.  Cleaning the old one was a pain in the buns.  I love the cautionary bits in the instructions - make sure plates are completely cooled before removing.  Umm, duh.

And that's more than enough out of me today.  What's up with you?

Thursday This n That

I find it amusing that California is apparently freaking out about a potential avocado shortage.  Especially since they're the highest avocado producing state in the US.  Sure, CA produces way less than we import, but they export most of what they grow, from what I scanned through yesterday.  Plus, avocados are grown in FL and HI, too.  Oh, and a bunch of other countries that aren't on our border grow avocados - AU, NZ, Brazil, Peru...  They might be a bit more expensive.  Then again, considering how much other produce we get from all around the world, maybe not.  Tell ya what Cali, keep all of your avocados in state from now on.  Personally, I'd rather have a secure border than a cheap avocado.  :shrug:  Tell ya what, you can have all of mine.  K?

Speaking of produce, I bought a bag of apples in AR that were grown in Sparta, Michigan.  Gotta love technology and progress and freedom.  Yummy yummy apples from my home state, out of season and reasonably priced. 

I'm utterly surprised to have lilies coming back this year.  The deer munched them all to the ground last summer, so I figured without the leaves to provide energy, the bulbs would surely die.  Guess not.  Must be the lilies way of continuing to thrive amidst adversity.  Go Lilies!

Amazon supposedly fixed the pricing problem I had yesterday.  Still looked screwed up to me, but I stopped having the gumption to fight it.  It is what it is.  Thank goodness I didn't pay for advertising this time.

Blogger is having a brain fart while I type this.  Lagging big time and putting weird characters where there shouldn't be any characters.  Bleh.  Remember how I said 'gotta love technology' up there?  Yeah, love it when it works. 

Anyway, rather than have this whole thing fall apart in the middle of writing it, I'll let you go for now.  How are the this n thats in your world?

Thursday This n That

I ordered a new crock pot this week.  My old one developed a crack in the ceramic liner.  Oh well.  Time for me to try one that doesn't have a tendency to go nuclear on Low.  I went to Amazon.  Found a Proctor-Silex model with really awesome reviews.  Went to order it and there's no order button.  Because it's only available to Prime members.  :eyeroll:  Clicked over to the white version of the same damn crock pot.  About a $1.50 more expensive, but available to lower life forms like me.  Sorry Big A, but I order so infrequently that Prime doesn't do me a damn bit of good.  And I ordered my new keyboard, too, so I got free shipping.  They should be here next week.

Yes, I will post a review of the new keyboard once I get used to it.

And the crock pot, if anyone's interested.

The day the crock pot cracked, I was making barbecue chicken.  Put some apple juice in the bottom of the crock pot (enough to cover the bottom by about 1/4"), slap a couple chicken breasts in there, season to taste (salt, pepper, chili powder, onion powder).  A couple hours later, liberally dollop some peach jelly on those suckers.  An hour later, pour your favorite BBQ sauce over them.  Once you can push on one of the breasts and have it start to flake apart, take the chicken out (another hour maybe).  Put it on a plate and use a fork to pull it apart.  Slide the meat back into the slow cooker.  Add more BBQ sauce and peach jelly.  Season to taste again.  Wait about another hour and serve.  I did mine over toasted buns and Hubs put his over mashed potatoes. 

Sometimes without warning I am known to say 'yippity skippity boink-boink-boink' in relation to nothing.  Sometimes I sing it.

For some reason, we've had a lot of praying mantises around lately.  Gross.  I was weeding and had one jump out onto my arm.  I got to show off my ninja moves then.  That night, I had three of them on my bathroom window as I was brushing my teeth for bed.  The next day I was weeding again and one popped out of the pile I was raking.  The other day Hubs was mowing and there was a HUGE one in the grass.  He went to move it and it stabbed him with one of its claws.  Lucky he was wearing gloves.  :shudder:  I hate praying mantises.  I mean, they're kind of interesting to watch - especially when they're eating their mate - but... :shudder:

We have far too many bugs here.  As far as I can tell, it's the only downside to living here.

Okay, that's probably quite enough out of me this morning.  What have you got going on in your this n that world?

Prime Day

Last week as I was driving down to Wallyworld, I listened to a couple radio announcers bantering back and forth about Amazon Prime.  The guy was saying how he'd signed up for Prime under their '30 days Free' campaign and then, because he didn't cancel before the 30 days were up, he got charged $120 for the whole year.  And now he can't cancel because he can't remember his password. 

The gal was telling him all the awesome things he could do with his Prime account.  None of which, he assured her, he would ever actually use.  Free two-day shipping, which was the reason he signed up in the first place, was pointless for him.  He told her he doesn't spend $120 a year on shipping for Amazon, so it wasn't worth it.  And he rarely ever needs anything inside of 2 days. 

Why he ever signed up for it in the first place?  I missed that part.  And I'm not sure what the resolution ended up being because I got bored and changed the station.

Today is Amazon Prime day.  Apparently, if you're paying for Prime (or sign up for their free 30 days promotion right now), today you'll have access to all kinds of discounts and sales and special offers.  I'm with the radio dude.  I have no use for it.  Right now, I have everything I want or need, so even browsing their sales and what have ya wouldn't do me any good. 

I heard other stores are also supposed to be having sales extravaganzas today, so check your favorites and see what they have.  You might find some deals elsewhere without a Prime membership.  If you're into that thing.   

I used to be.  Believe me.  I'd see a sale and I was SO there.  Even if I didn't need what was being sold.  Even if I didn't really have the money.  (That's what credit cards were for, doncha know.)  I reined all that in years ago.  Now, if I don't need it, I don't get it.  And if I don't have the money, I don't get it even if I think I need it.  Which is probably why I'm driving a 2003 Cavalier.

Okay, I have to admit, I'm still pretty sale-driven when it comes to food.  I probably didn't really need that packet of single serve coffee things, but it was marked down 20% in the clearance area, and I do love me some flavored coffee.  Hazelnut.  Yum. 

Hello.  My name is B.E. and I have a shopping problem.  It's been years since my last binge shopping trip...

Which is why I'm avoiding shopping today.  So, if you're a Prime member, have at it.  If you're not and you want to still catch the sales, sign up for the 30-day thing - just remember to cancel unless you want to be billed like that radio dude.  I heard today is supposed to be the biggest shopping day next to Black Friday.  I'll be here, sitting in my cabin.

Speaking of sales, what's the best deal you ever got on anything?  I found this awesome dress once for $3.  It looked like nothing on the hanger, but when I put it on, I was a goddess.  I loved that dress.